Operating system defaults to Ethernet (cable)/DHCP.
In order to make use of a Wi-Fi network, follow the steps below.

(A) Use a Raspberry Pi 3/Zero W board (which have got an internal 802.11 Wi-Fi adapter already built-in) or plug a compatible USB Wi-Fi adapter in, in the case you are using Raspberry Pi 1/2/Zero. Just Google for that if uncertain.

If a wlan0 interface is available as output of ifconfig -a command, you can begin setting it as described in point B), otherwise you need to install a proper module for the adapter first. Most modules come already installed in Raspberry Slideshow, but of course a new or different one could be needed. Again, Google for that.

(B) Plug an Ethernet cable into the R-Pi and re/boot; find out the IP associated to your Raspberry Pi and connect to it from your client PC via SSH (as root) in a LAN environment (on the same subnet).

If you do not know the name of your wireless network, you can find the above YOUR_ESSID parameter with the iwlist scanning command. You also should run that command in order to see if your wlan0 interface is able to “see” your Wi-Fi router/access point, first.

Use wireless-essid instead of wpa-ssid and wireless-key instead of wpa-psk directives in case of WEP encryption (deprecated, i.e. don’t do it, don’t use WEP).

Then type in:

ifdown wlan0 && sleep5; ifup wlan0

If no error is shown, you can verify everything is ok with ifconfig -a (make sure your wlan0 interface has an IP address associated).

If something is going wrong, you may need to debug what’s happening. Install the syslog first, with apt-get update && apt-get install rsyslog and then, in another terminal session, before doing a new attempt, launch:

tail -f /var/log/syslog

GOT A LARGE SD CARD? HOW TO EXPAND FILESYSTEM

The operating system’s filesystem size is about 4GB. If you own a larger SD card, it’s advised to enlarge the filesystem in order to use the entire space.

Omxplayer doesn’t use default alsa setting (which is set by raspi-config).
By default it is in auto mode, which means if HDMI is connected and EDID reports audio support, then it uses HDMI, otherwise headphones.

Adding -o local or -o hdmi to the omxplayer command line in /etc/rs.conf can be used to override this. Thanks to Marcus.

AVOID INFORMATIONAL OUTPUT ON TV WHEN PLAYING VIDEOS

When using a TV as the screen, the video playback ends showing the output “HMDI 1920×1080” on the TV. Best way to avoid this tedious issue should be supressing TV output, but not always it is possible.

While having videos at the same resolution, you can try setting the Linux framebuffer resolution equal to the videos resolution. Please have al look at: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=54939.

If you slide one video only, you can instruct omxplayer to loop the video, see later on.

PLAYBACK-RELATED

DEBUG MODE

Setting DEBUG=”y” in /etc/rs.conf enables the debug mode.
System actions will then be logged on screen and in /var/log/rs.conf.

SSH in as root and use mc -e /etc/rs.conf to modify the config file.

I HAVE ISSUES PULLING MEDIA FROM A WINDOWS SHARE

Doube check that the Pi is able to connect to the share and fetch the media: try connecting “manually” via SSH as root:

mount //serverIP/shareName -ousername=guest,password=guest /mnt

Previous command should not raise an error and you should be able to list your media by using:

ls /mnt

USE A DIFFERENT NETWORK SHARE USER (NOT GUEST)

If you have a network share accessible with username/password (and not guest/guest), you can easily modify Raspberry Slideshow to connect to that share with those credentials.
Just modify the file /usr/lib/rs/class/System.sh, “Bash methods” System_populateTempFolderFromSambaShare() and System_getSambaShareContentHash().
Please do not create backup files in the /usr/lib/rs/class folder because every Bash file in that folder will be run.

SSH in as root and use mc -e /usr/lib/rs/class/System.sh as the editor.

USE SMBv2 FOR THE NETWORK SHARE (Raspberry Slideshow < 11)

According to Microsoft’s official documentation, SMBv1 is not installed by default in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and Windows Server, version 1709. So, in order to be compatible with newer Microsoft operating systems, SMBv2 must be used.

Modify the Samba mounting statement in the file /usr/lib/rs/class/System.sh by adding the vers=2.0 parameter:

SSH in as root and use mc -e /usr/lib/rs/class/System.sh as the editor.
Raspberry Slideshow 11 and newer default to SMB v2. If you have older Windoze systems, please remove the parameter.
Thanks to Alan Tahler.

PLAYING MEDIA ONLY AND ALWAYS FROM THE USB KEY

Ok, I know that – in order not to require the USB key to be always plugged in – before the playback, media is copied into the internal SD card.
Smart, but I want RS to play from my veeery big USB key. How to?

Just modify the configuration in /etc/rs.conf as:

MEDIA_FOLDER="/m/usb0"
SOURCE_FOLDER="/m/usb0"

And comment out the line:

System_cleanTargetFolder $SOURCE_FOLDER $MEDIA_FOLDER

in /usr/lib/rs/class/System.sh.

Thanks to Josiah Merola and Scott Schuster for the feedback.

STORING MEDIA/FILES WITHOUT THE NEED FOR THE USB KEY (VIA THE NETWORK)

“I am only interested in displaying the media I manually copy into the Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Slideshow via the network, not via a USB key”.

You can upload files using scp: just put files in /usr/lib/rs/imgs and restart Systemd: systemctl restart rs (via SSH as root).

IIS WEBSERVER ISSUES

If you are using Windows Server (ok, it’s your fault ;), you have to edit IIS to allow .mp4 files as a MIME type, otherwise it will be impossible for Raspberry Slideshow to load videos from the server. Thanks to Justin Kanengieter.

SLIDER

FIXING GREEN SCREEN IN VIDEO PLAYBACKFIXING VIDEOS ARE PLAYING ONLY ONCE

If you experience a green screen while playing videos, set gpu_mem=128 in /boot/config.txt. Thanks to Pete Cheyne.

For example you can set the image slider to randomize images playback (-random flag) or enable the EXIF rotation; if you need a quicker setup (both when booting and when refreshing server content) keep it disabled. If you slide camera photos, keep it enabled.

For images, change both IMAGE_PLAYER* lines.

Have a look at fbi and omxplayer man pages for help. Help outputs follow.

Large images can be scrolled using the cursor keys. Zoom in/out
works with ‘+’ and ‘-‘. Use ESC or ‘q’ to quit. Space and PgDn
show the next, PgUp shows the previous image. Jumping to a image
works with g. Return acts like Space but additionally prints
prints the filename of the currently displayed image to stdout.